Sales Tips for Democrats
Whether
you are selling an insurance policy or national policy, you need to give your
target audience the information they need to buy what you are offering. In
their messaging, the Dems aren't doing it. And in their coverage, the media
have been inadequate.
BY HOWARD
TULLMAN, GENERAL MANAGING PARTNER, G2T3V AND CHICAGO HIGH TECH
INVESTORS@TULLMAN
When a prospective buyer makes a final
purchasing decision about our products or services, we're often not in the room
where it happens or an effective part of the conversation. And sadly, when we
lose, it's often because we've done a mediocre job of equipping our internal
champions with the specific data and other ammunition they need to convince
their coworkers that buying our stuff makes sense. This isn't that hard to do,
but it requires some planning, anticipation and discretion to do it right and
not overdo it.
Part of any good sales job is to help do your
supporters' homework for them; to make sure that they've got the simple answers
and the backup documentation and testimonials they'll need to get the sale
closed. An equally important part of the process is not to overstep the
appropriate boundaries. Too much material and too much pushing is
a sure and counterproductive turnoff. No one is looking for more work or more
paper. Just tell me quickly and concisely how you're gonna save me and my
people time and money and make us more productive and I'm yours.
It's even a tougher task when your product or
service is up for renewal (which I call "the second sale") and the
decision maker is some functionary who has to sign off on an extension of a
license or a subscription renewal without any real idea of what they are being
asked to approve. This is usually a financial person who's always looking to
cut costs, reduce outlays, and get rid of orphaned programs, services or
subscriptions. As you can imagine, especially in tough financial times, it's
way too easy and much safer for them to say "No" in these cases and
just let things lapse or expire.
You need to get ahead of the renewal calendar
so you know when these decisions are going to be made and how you can get the
necessary facts in front of the right folks before the door gets slammed shut. But again,
it's important to remember that a few key facts are likely to be far more
persuasive and effective than a boatload of boring stats and reports. It's a
job for a sniper rifle and not a shotgun - precise and to the point.
This is why it's so disappointing - especially
with the time to accomplish much of anything slipping away - to see the lousy
job the Democrats (and much of the media) are doing of presenting and
explaining to the largely turned-off public the basic facts around the critical
debates going on about the future of our economy, democracy and country.
The central fact for the Democrats right now -
just as it is for anyone "selling" anything - is that, if you don't
give your team and your supporters a few key talking points to help cut through
the noise on these issues, they're not going to have the ammunition and
confidence to be able to hold up their side of any discussion or arguments.
The simplest example is the constant chatter
about the dozens of states passing all kinds of horrible and restrictive new
laws regarding voting. When you ask anyone in favor of these laws what's going
on, you get back a very straightforward answer along the lines of "what's
wrong with asking someone to properly identify themselves before they
vote?" And then they'll ask you exactly what you object to in the various
new laws and - guess what - you don't have an answer.
That's because no one has done even a remotely
decent job of specifying exactly what's wrong with a single one of these new
laws, or making such information broadly and consistently available to the
public. Sure, there are dozens of states allegedly doing awful things, but
where's the beef?
We voters are supposed to be the buyers and
the dolts in DC are supposed to be explaining to us what they are doing and why
they deserve our continued support. Ideally, but probably no longer
realistically, the best choices and decisions for our country will be made by
the most informed voters. Needless to say, no one believes that this is
happening today anywhere.
The simplest example is the failure to explain
why the Dems are so reluctant to use the reconciliation process to address
critical issues about the debt ceiling and eliminate the risks of default. Not
one pundit in a thousand bothered to explain that using reconciliation is a
once-a-year deal and, if the Dems had quickly employed it to save the country from
an economic catastrophe, they wouldn't have been able to use it to pass Biden's
major Build Back Better bill. This, of course, was exactly what McConnell was
trying to force them to do and what he'll be doing again in December. This is
not a difficult idea or a hard concept to understand. It's just something that
no one wants to bother to explain to the voters.
And, of course, it's equally foolish to accept
the simplistic formulation that these disputes are about the multi-trillion
budget rather than the substance of what's involved. We see the constant
references to massive, but largely meaningless, dollar amounts every day. The
first infrastructure bill, which passed with significant bipartisan support, is
constantly referred to as a trillion-dollar package even though just over 50%
of the spending is new funding.
If no one is interested or willing, to give
the voting public honest explanations, clear details, concrete facts and the
tools necessary to make intelligent decisions about the future of this country,
why would we expect anyone to care or any better outcomes than we have had in
the last few years?
In the end, whatever you're selling -
products, services, policies or politicians - the story is ultimately the same.
It's not what you tell them that matters, it's what they hear and, right now,
all we hear is noise and nonsense.
OCT 26, 2021
